Jane Penson's Radio Weblog

Sat, 28 Feb 2004 16:15:58 GMT

I have been most impressed by a very striking figure I saw while driving. He was black and wore clothes that were exactly the same colour as his skin. The effect of a monotone figure was very strangely disorientating. No line between face and collar, sleeves and hands or trousers and coat. A strong image has been imprinted on my memory.

Thu, 27 Nov 2003 22:47:33 GMT

Folk fiddle is a great deal of fun when you get a whole roomful of people doing it as we did in Aston Clinton last Saturday. Rehearsing for the January fiddle rally in Aylesbury. I can't really do the fast tunes but when there are loads of people who can you just move your bow up and down and look convincing.

I want to get good at it - so I have been practising. Trouble is the calluses you get on the ends of the fingers of your left hand. OK unless you want to make lace or read braille as well I suppose.

Makes me think about the blind fiddler in the song - perhaps he didn't read braille...

Sat, 25 Oct 2003 17:49:41 GMT

My elbow hurt so I bought a new chair!

Seems daft doesn't it. The physio's advice to exercise my muscles and all that did no good at all, so I think I must be doing something to aggravate it every day without realising it. Then I go to talk to Back in Action www.backinaction.co.uk who sell all sorts of stuff like wierd chairs and special beds to help people look after their bodies. They told me it's because of how I hold my mouse and that is because 1. My keyboard has numbers where the mouse should be - look at yours - I bet it does too! and 2. when I relax my arm the mouse rushes towards me and falls off the edge of the desk.

So I need a rocking chair that leans forward when I do and brings my shoulder above the desktop so my arm can stay bent at a right angle and not strain to stay straight at the same time as doing all the little mouse movements. That's what puts continuous strain on the elbow. Amazing.

Tue, 07 Oct 2003 21:28:22 GMT

What do you do about people who won't write things down?

Just been reading Ron Lusk and Jim McGee's comments about how people don't like writing. This is a big hindrance to document based KM and even informal media like blogs and email.

It's a bit like the problem of getting people to update a database. Some people do it as a matter of course and would never write an address on a piece of paper. Others complain about the database not being up to date (the addresses they want aren't on it because they don't put them on) and then stop using it altogether because it's useless.

Sun, 05 Oct 2003 17:04:57 GMT

Just come back from meeting 11 of the people I was at boarding school with. We were last together 32 years ago and they all looked the same! Faces a bit more lined but exactly the same smiles, frowns, gestures and little physical habits.

Funny how life's knocks can't knock those out of you. We had them at 12 and now, after dozens of husbands, babies, jobs, divorces and house moves (collectively speaking of course) we have still got them. Amazing.

Fri, 03 Oct 2003 16:04:20 GMT

This is one of my FAQs. Every single writing course I run, someone asks me:

"Can you put a comma before "and"?

So for anyone who reads this, here's the answer. Yes.

You remember you were taught at school to write lists like this:

apples, pears, bananas and grapes (no comma before the and)

So that's why you think you shouldn't. But, if you are joining two short sentences together, sometimes you need a comma to make your meaning clear. For example:

Tom was sitting eating spaghetti and the ceiling suddenly caved in. In this sentence, a comma before the and would make sure you didn't (even just for a moment) think Tom was eating the ceiling as well as his pasta.

And anyway, isn't it better to put a comma in to make your meaning clear than to obey a half-remembered rule from a teacher who has forgotten you even if you haven't forgotten her?

Fri, 03 Oct 2003 07:24:59 GMT

I'm thinking about a title for this. My name's not very good because it doesn't tell anyone what kind of content to expect. But then I don't know what kind of content to expect either really.

I'm going to be doing a lot of thinking about a topic for my MBA dissertation - but only for a while. I'd better have a look and see what seasoned bloggers do.

Thu, 02 Oct 2003 20:48:40 GMT

This is the home page for Words Work and me.

We are passionate about communicating in writing. We believe that writing is for everyone - not just people who are good at spelling and grammar!

My job is to get people feeling more confident about how to express themselves in writing for business purposes. I am very excited about weblogs because they get everyone writing and reading about lots of subjects, some silly and some very serious.